1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a miniature high precision portable microscope, and more particularly to a self contained microscope that is built into a miniature portable stand.
2. Description of Related Art
High precision laboratory microscopes are bulky, heavy and occupy a large area on a bench. These medium to high power microscopes are traditionally limited to sample observations on a rigid table in a laboratory. Unfortunately, these instruments are not practical for every application or accessible to every person who can benefit from them. There are a number of inexpensive portable microscope devices available on the market. However, these technologies are low power and limited to demonstration and instructional purposes only. They have limited magnification and resolution and often use plastic optics. For example, the PocketScope®, manufactured by Pocketscope.com LLC of Alpharetta, Ga., utilizes a single plastic lens and is limited to 150× magnification and the QX3 microscope is limited to 200×.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,635 is directed to a hand-held single lens microscope incorporating two members movable towards and away from each other for focusing. One member holds a specimen to be examined, while the other member has a lens aperture, presumably one with lens beads. The specimen is brought into focus by pivoting one clamp component about the center of the other clamp component with finger pressure, thereby adjusting the distance between the lens and the slide.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,874 discloses a hand-held single lens microscope which utilizes finger pressure to accomplish focusing by deflection of one cantilevered part bearing the spherical lens and a second cantilevered part holding the slide. The two parts are resiliently joined along a common edge and partially enclose the slide when the unit is in use. The slide, however, cannot be repositioned while it is being viewed.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,737,016 and 5,844,714 disclose portable microscopes, incorporating low magnifying power lenses in a handle combined with various detachable devices for holding both unmounted specimens and standard microscope slides. The image is focused by pivoting or sliding the specimen holding means closer or further from the lens. These microscopes lack aperture optimization, a precise and stable focus mechanism, adequate illumination, and an aperture for illumination collimation control.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,572,370 and 5,267,087 disclose simple, low magnification microscopes intended for use in determining a woman's fertile periods. These instruments are not intended for use with standard specimen slides, nor are they intended for general microscopic use. The overall form of these microscopes is cylindrical and internal illumination is provided by means of battery powered light sources. There is no provision to utilize ambient light for specimen illumination. These microscopes lack aperture optimization, a precise and stable focus device or mechanism, and adequate illumination.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,880,879 discloses a microscope objective lens system utilizing a diffractive optical element for chromatic aberration correction. The two lens system includes an aperture stop in between the lenses. One example of a lens designed for microscopes according to this invention is a singlet lens incorporating both aspheric and diffractive surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,847,480 discloses a portable, single lens microscope for viewing an object positioned on a slide. This microscope uses only a single lens, and the specimen must be presented on a microscope slide.
There is a need for a high resolution, high magnification, compact and portable, self-contained microscope for field use, military applications, hospital or clinical use. Conventional laboratory microscopes require the sample to be sectioned, extracted or cut into small pieces to fit on a microscope slide or other substrates within the confines of a microscope stage. For many applications it is impractical to extract a small sample that can be mounted and observed using today's bench-top microscopes. Therefore there is also a need for a high-precision scientific grade portable microscope, suitable for scientific or military applications, which is capable of observing virtually any specimen with little or no alteration to the sample.